PRESS RELEASE BY THE MINISTRY FOR EUROPEAN FUNDS, SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND CONSUMER PROTECTION European funding through the Erasmus+ programme to strengthen educators’ professional development

An investment of €60,000 through the Erasmus+ programme is supporting a project led by St Francis School in Birkirkara to strengthen educators’ professional development and create educational resources that can be used beyond the participating schools.

Minister for European Funds, Social Dialogue and Consumer Protection Keith Azzopardi Tanti addressed an event on the Online Professional Development Modules project, which brings together educational institutions from Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia. This partnership gives educators opportunities to share their experiences, observe different teaching methods and develop new practices for the benefit of students.

The project focuses on the emergent curriculum, through which learning develops in response to children’s interests and needs. This is supported through learning experiences abroad, job shadowing, the exchange of good practices and parental involvement in the educational process.

The planned resources include at least 15 videos supporting educators’ professional development, five videos for parents, an online course and a professional learning community. These resources will help share the knowledge gained with more educators and families and ensure its continued use after the project ends.

Minister Azzopardi Tanti highlighted the value that European funding is also bringing to the education sector. “When an educator visits a European school and returns with new ideas, the value of that experience is reflected in the changes made in the classroom and the benefits for students. We want the knowledge gained through these opportunities to be shared and to reach more schools,” the Minister said.

Collaboration between the institutions from the three countries also creates opportunities for mutual learning, with Malta’s experience contributing to discussions alongside the expertise of European partners as they jointly continue to develop the tools needed to support learning.

The Minister encouraged more schools and educators to participate in European programmes and build international partnerships. He also acknowledged the work of the European Union Programmes Agency in supporting the Erasmus+ programme in Malta, while thanking the schools, partners, educators and parents involved.

The Head of School, Daniela Demicoli, said that five schools, three from Malta, namely St. Francis School Birkirkara as project coordinator, St. Paul's Missionary College, Rabat and Bishop's Conservatory Junior School, Victoria Gozo, a school from Slovenia and a school from Slovakia, partnered up and developed a set of online modules as part of an Erasmus project. 

“These online modules targeted Early Childhood Education.  Each partner school chose 3 areas relevant to the Early years and prepared a video highlighting practical concepts per area. Each module starts off with a pre-test to check one's current knowledge on a particular topic, a video and a post-test to help one check one's improvement in that area. These modules were uploaded onto a Virtual Learning Environment and will be available to all educators and parents, in an effort to encourage parents to use the same good practices teachers use in their classes,” concluded Ms Demicoli.

Through this collaboration, educators’ individual experiences can become a shared resource for the educational community. Sharing teaching methods and materials creates opportunities for more schools to benefit from the project, strengthen support for educators and offer learning experiences that better respond to children’s different needs.